---
name: "sd_bus_set_property"
section: "3"
platform: "linux"
package: "systemd-libs"
version: "262.1-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/sd_bus_set_property"
---

# sd\_bus\_set\_property(3)

Set or query D-Bus service properties

## NAME

sd\_bus\_set\_property, sd\_bus\_set\_propertyv, sd\_bus\_get\_property, sd\_bus\_get\_property\_trivial, sd\_bus\_get\_property\_string, sd\_bus\_get\_property\_strv - Set or query D-Bus service properties

## SYNOPSIS

```
#include <systemd/sd-bus.h>
```

**int sd\_bus\_set\_property(sd\_bus \****bus***, const char \****destination***, const char \****path***, const char \****interface***, const char \****member***, sd\_bus\_error \****ret\_error***, const char \****type***, ...);**

**int sd\_bus\_set\_propertyv(sd\_bus \****bus***, const char \****destination***, const char \****path***, const char \****interface***, const char \****member***, sd\_bus\_error \****ret\_error***, const char \****type***, va\_list** *ap***);**

**int sd\_bus\_get\_property(sd\_bus \****bus***, const char \****destination***, const char \****path***, const char \****interface***, const char \****member***, sd\_bus\_error \****ret\_error***, sd\_bus\_message \*\****reply***, const char \****type***);**

**int sd\_bus\_get\_property\_trivial(sd\_bus \****bus***, const char \****destination***, const char \****path***, const char \****interface***, const char \****member***, sd\_bus\_error \****ret\_error***, char** *type***, void \****ret\_ptr***);**

**int sd\_bus\_get\_property\_string(sd\_bus \****bus***, const char \****destination***, const char \****path***, const char \****interface***, const char \****member***, sd\_bus\_error \****ret\_error***, char \*\****ret***);**

**int sd\_bus\_get\_property\_strv(sd\_bus \****bus***, const char \****destination***, const char \****path***, const char \****interface***, const char \****member***, sd\_bus\_error \****ret\_error***, char \*\*\****ret***);**

## DESCRIPTION

These functions set or query D-Bus properties. D-Bus properties are service fields exposed via the **org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties** interface. Under the hood, these functions call methods of the **org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties** interface and as a result their semantics are similar to [**sd\_bus\_call\_method**(3)](/sd_bus_call_method/3.md).

**sd\_bus\_set\_property()** sets a D-Bus property. If setting the property fails or an internal error occurs, an error is returned and an extended description of the error is optionally stored in *ret\_error* if it is not **NULL**. *type* and the arguments that follow it describe the new value of the property and must follow the format described in [**sd\_bus\_message\_append**(3)](/sd_bus_message_append/3.md).

**sd\_bus\_set\_propertyv()** is equivalent to **sd\_bus\_set\_property()**, except that it is called with a "va\_list" instead of a variable number of arguments.

**sd\_bus\_get\_property()** queries a D-Bus property. If retrieving the property fails or an internal error occurs, an error is returned and an extended description of the error is optionally stored in *ret\_error* if it is not **NULL**. On success, the property is stored in *reply*. *type* describes the property type and must follow the format described in [**sd\_bus\_message\_append**(3)](/sd_bus_message_append/3.md).

**sd\_bus\_get\_property\_trivial()**, **sd\_bus\_get\_property\_string()** and **sd\_bus\_get\_property\_strv()** are shorthands for **sd\_bus\_get\_property()** that are used to query basic, string and string vector properties respectively. The caller is responsible for freeing the string and string vector results stored in *ret* by **sd\_bus\_get\_property\_string()** and **sd\_bus\_get\_property\_strv()**.

## RETURN VALUE

On success, these functions return a non-negative integer. On failure, they return a negative errno-style error code.

### Errors

See the [**sd\_bus\_call\_method**(3)](/sd_bus_call_method/3.md) man page for a list of possible errors.

## NOTES

Functions described here are available as a shared library, which can be compiled against and linked to with the **libsystemd** [**pkg-config**(1)](/pkg-config/1.md) file.

All functions listed here are thread-agnostic and only a single thread may operate on a given object at any given time. Different threads may access the same object at different times. Multiple independent objects may be used from different threads in parallel.

The code described here uses [**getenv**(3)](/getenv/3.md), which is declared to be not multi-thread-safe. This means that the code calling the functions described here must not call [**setenv**(3)](/setenv/3.md) from a parallel thread. It is recommended to only do calls to **setenv()** from an early phase of the program when no other threads have been started.

## HISTORY

**sd\_bus\_set\_property()**, **sd\_bus\_set\_propertyv()**, **sd\_bus\_get\_property()**, **sd\_bus\_get\_property\_trivial()**, **sd\_bus\_get\_property\_string()**, and **sd\_bus\_get\_property\_strv()** were added in version 246.

## SEE ALSO

[**systemd**(1)](/systemd/1.md), [**sd-bus**(3)](/sd-bus/3.md), [**sd\_bus\_call\_method**(3)](/sd_bus_call_method/3.md)